Three hundred live dogs are rescued and 200 kilos of half-cooked meat confiscated during a police raid in the coastal city of Qingdao, Shandong Province, on October 25, 2006.

By Liang Ruoqiao

At 3 pm, nobody's eating at the Sunshine Fragrant Meat Restaurant, Guangzhou's most famous dog restaurant. It seems a bit strange at first as Guangzhou is a city renowned for its round-the-clock supply of morning tea, afternoon tea and dog's meat. In fact, Sunshine closes for table business after lunch to 5 pm.

Two men chatting at the front table look older than the restaurant itself. One haggard-looking waitress in her early 40s behind the reception desk eyes the Global Times reporter with suspicion. Conspicuous stains yellow her white uniform.

"The boss isn't in," the waitress shakes her head. "No, I don't know when he will come in."

Nor did she know the boss' mobile phone number. The two men turn out to be with the restaurant. They are both drivers, re-employed after being laid off several years ago and work as kitchen helpers.

Having worked here a little over a year, they describe themselves as "knowing nothing about the restaurant" and race away.

The glory days of the 47-year-old Sunshine appear long gone. Bronze panels featuring "Fragrant Meat Pot"-winning prizes at the Guangzhou Cuisine Festival in the 1990s and early 2000s occupy the first row of the restaurant façade, along with pictures on the wall of local celebrities shaking hands with the same moon-faced man in his late 40s. The pictures look a bit dated and the patrons are mostly governmental officials.

There is even a picture of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. When he visited Guangzhou in 2007, he ordered 10 kilos of dog meat from here to be delivered to the White Swan Hotel where he was staying.

The waitress tries to persuade the Global Times journalist to leave. She maintains a disciplined silence at all or any questions about the restaurant.

Over the course of an hour, one customer – a Putonghua-speaking woman in her 20s – enters. The waitress sends her upstairs for a takeout after confirming she's a real customer.

Outside the restaurant, the customer refuses to talk to the Global Times journalist. She quickly hails a taxi and leaves.

A chef chops dog during a festival in Guiyang, capital city of Guizhou Province, on December 21, 2006, one day before the winter solstice when local people traditionally eat dog to "drive away the winter chill".

Fragrant restaurants

Meanwhile at peak dinnertime in a Sunshine branch restaurant, three out of seven tables are occupied. Unwilling to reveal her name, the waitress says, "Sales have dropped over the last few years."

She refuses to reveal how many portions are sold a day, although winter is high season for the dog diners in Guangdong Province.

It is hard to come by any estimates of dog consumption in Guangdong or nationwide.

"It's basically illegal business," said Zheng Zhishan, International Federation of Animal Welfare (IFAW) Companion Animal project coordinator.

"What's more, a lot of dogs are stolen before they end up on the dinner table."

For a province boasting culinary diversity, especially meat diversity, it's surprisingly difficult to find dog in the capital city. Of the 19,535 restaurants registered on one popular restaurant listing website, 11 have names or dishes mentioning dog meat or "fragrant meat": the Cantonese euphemism.

Dog meat is more often found in Hakka, Guizhou, Korean and Zhanjiang cuisines in Guangzhou.

"I heard there are only two dozen restaurants where you can have dog in Guangzhou," says food critic Yan Tao, a senior editor with Southern Metropolis Daily, "not many for a city of over 15 million people.

"The animal rights campaigners are quick to act whenever they spot a restaurant selling dog dishes."

Yan says this happened to Guizhou cuisine and that one restaurant retracted its dog dish advertising campaign under pressure.

"It's important to point out increasing numbers of young people are moving away from eating all kinds of animals – cats, dogs, chickens, cows, ducks and pigs," Chris-tine Li, special projects coordinator at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in Asia, replied by e-mail.

"Therefore while we see a rise in vegetarianism, we are also seeing a decrease in dog eating."

Zhang, who refused to be fully named, meets the Global Times journalist in a nearby café teeming with white-collar workers.

"I might have been fed it (dog meat) by my parents when I was young," she says, "but I don't eat it anymore."

Nor does the 24-year-old Guangzhou resident own a dog.

It's easy enough to find anti-dog-meat campaigners on the Internet. Their grounds include an emotional attachment to a companion animal to a comprehensive package of animal rights arguments.

"Don't eat your friends," is typical of the online logic, left by Perry_0820 on dog lovers' site aigou.com.

Claiming indifference to either side, Li Degeng said the issue should be the unhygienic, frightful condition of dog farms and their unregulated slaughterhouses.

"If there is no oversight of dogs," Li, a 33-year-old executive from Beijing, said, "how can we know if the meat is suitable for eating?" He hadn't tasted dog meat his entire life, he added.

Media reports back Li's assertion: 672 dead dogs were stopped in transit in Huadu district of Guangdong Province in 2001. Poisoned in Hunan and Jiangxi provinces, the animals were destined for the dinner tables of Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Foshan.

A young animal right activist holds up a placard saying, "Have mercy with your mouth. Say 'no' to cruelty. Please don't eat cat and dog!" in Wuhan, capital city of Hubei Province, on January 23, 2010. Photos: CFP

Canine cult

Due to the high prices and relatively low visibility of these eateries, dog is something of a cult food enjoyed by a small number of Guangzhou residents. The takeaway dog dish from Sunshine is actually dog's penis, the Global Times journalist later learns.

"Dog whip" increases male sexual vitality, according to traditional myth. One 160 yuan ($23) portion of penis-for-two comes in a transparent lunchbox. By comparison, a Cantonese brunch-for-two at the five-star China Grand Hotel costs less than 200 yuan.

Sunshine in recent years has diversified into other varieties of meat. As if to dilute the impression of doing dog only, there are A4-printout photos of roast chicken, duck, pig and pigeons taped to the wall.

A solitary photo of a "golden roast dog" makes no reference to its size. Sunshine also serves 6-yuan lunchboxes, minus dog.

"That woman has come three times since the beginning of the Spring Festival," a waitress in the Sunshine subsidiary points to a middle-aged woman.

The hardcore supporter of the restaurant says dog dishes "warm the body well". She speaks Cantonese with a soft voice and orders noodles to go with a half portion of dog meat pot, vegetables included, totaling 70 yuan.

The other two tables also feature frequent customers. The table on the left is occupied by three plainclothes officers who came by in an army-license plate Jeep. All speak Putonghua, the oldest in his early 30s ordering a large dog meat pot. He's familiar with the waitresses and introduces the history and special dishes to his companions.

The other table on the right is shared by two men. The older orders a "dog boot pot" (dog leg) for him and his younger Putonghua-speaking friend. They both down the dishes with Pearl River beer.

Gourmet taste

Gourmet Zhang Lifang, 62, is supposed to meet the Global Times reporter at a dog restaurant he frequents, only to find it has folded.

The restaurant was open for five years in Zhang's village on the suburbs of Shenzhen, but business became so poor the boss decided to close. Knowing the boss in person, Zhang is sorry to find it closed.

"It's still possible to find dog dishes in some Hakka restaurants in Shenzhen," he says.

Guangdong has two different ways of preparing dog meat: Hakka and Leizhou.

Hakka roasts the meat and adds kumin, aniseed and wild pepper to a clay pot and leave to simmer several hours.

The Leizhou way is quicker and simpler: After boiling in salty water, the meat is served together with fermented tofu and green peppers.

Preferring Hakka dishes, Zhang admits that lately he's had fewer occasions to indulge in canine cuisine. Zhang's son, who lives with him, doesn't like the dish. So if it gets cold in winter, they eat lamb instead.

"Lamb is even better than dog for your health, as its effects are milder," Zhang says. The price of lamb – more than 40 yuan per kilo – is higher than dog.

Dog meat cannot be bought easily: definitely not at the international supermarkets in downtown Shenzhen, for example. There are specialized dog meat vendors who travel between dog farms and restaurants, Zhang explains.

However dog hotpots have been popular during the cold snap in suburban Longgang and Nanshan districts, the Shenzhen edition of Southern Metropolis Daily reported on January 26.

In one street near Zhongshan Park of Nanshan district, half of the restaurants sell dog hotpot, the paper reported. Restaurants fetch 76 yuan a kilo for their hotpot.

Southern stereotype

A fan of dog dishes, food critic Yan Tao felt "dog-eating Guangzhou" an unfair and confusing stereotype.

In fact, dog meat fans like himself are discouraged from eating dog in Guangzhou, according to Yan. As evidence, he points out that dog restaurants are usually dingy suburban affairs with inflated prices.

At least three types of Cantonese don't eat dog because of their beliefs, he claims: First, businesspeople. By popular myth, dogs are supposedly lucky for entrepreneurs. Second, gangsters and fraternally-fraternally-minded individuals revere dogs as a symbol of loyalty and worship the popular Chinese god Guan Gong. Third, he believes Buddhists see dogs as "dirty" meat.

"Guangzhou may in fact be the least convenient city to enjoy dog dishes," says Yan, who is from Yunnan Province
 

Beijingers increasingly love their Pekinese

The number of dog owners – registered and unregistered – in China is rising by most measures.

A 2007 survey by the International Federation of Animal Welfare (IFAW) found about 75 percent of capital city dog owners had registered their animals.

Although it is the responsibility of owners to register their dogs, IFAW Companion Animal Project Coordinator Zheng Zhishan noted owners had voiced frustration with the regulation for two reasons: First, for not effectively punishing irresponsible dog owners. Second, most of the 500 yuan annual fee delivered no benefits, only restrictions on dog owners.